Today morning, we reported that Microsoft is joining AllSeen Alliance to participate in the industry discussions around Internet of Things platform. Actually, Microsoft is also joining Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). Microsoft believes that Internet of Things (IoT) represents an undeniable opportunity across a range of industries, and they want to make sure they deliver the right set of platforms and services to realize the IoT opportunity.

· Microsoft has joined the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and its founding members AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel in a collaboration that extends across industry, academia and government. The IIC’s goal is to reduce customers’ required time and complexity for building intelligent systems through open interoperability standards and common architectures to connect smart devices, machines, people, processes and data.

· Microsoft has joined the AllSeen Alliance, which was established in December 2013 to address a major challenge facing IoT, enabling smart, connected devices and objects to work together regardless of brand, operating system and other infrastructure considerations. AllSeen Alliance members are collaborating on a universal software framework, based on AllJoyn open source code, which allows devices to autonomously discover and interact with nearby products regardless of their underlying proprietary technology or communications protocols. Microsoft joins Cisco, Haier, LG, Panasonic, Qualcomm Connected Experiences Inc., Sharp, Silicon Image, Technicolor and TP-Link, in addition to more than 40 other member companies.

Microsoft also highlighted that they want to develop a powerful device platform and great services through Microsoft Azure to deliver great technology to developers, partners and customers.